Welcome general readers and theater directors to BooksByJewell!
Here you will find links that take you to the books I've published including my latest: John F. Kennedy: Light the World, a Keepsake Edition of my new play with songs and photos. It's a play with 14 original folk and patriotic songs with 80 illustrative pictures (in color and B&W in the hardback and all B&W in the paperback).
The play is not a traditional narrative in form; it's ceremonial and presents a set of actions, statements, etc. for performance on specific days (e.g. President's Day, Memorial Day, July 4th, Veteran's Day, the anniversary of JFK's assassination) for a serious purpose (to honor the memory of our 35th President).
The thesis of the play is that the animators and agents of a powerful hidden Force -- which I compare to the Biblical Leviathan in the playscript -- assassinated President Kennedy in order to maintain covert control over the United States. Kennedy was taking steps to dismantle and render this Force powerless.
I've worked on this project off and on since 1983, when the "play" consisted of about 30 fictional characters memories of what they were doing when they heard the news that JFK had been assassinated. My late wife Joyce, and freind and colleague Craig Carman made a cassette of the songs I had at that time. The script itself, was static as a play so I put it aside and came back to it in about three years before the 50th anniversary of his death in 2013. That flurry of activity resulted in a CD with Joyce and my good friend Charlie Barnes singing the songs. I still could not develop a working script. Maybe more time had to pass. I'm not sure.
But a couple of years ago, two things happened. First, the increase in political division, raw hatred, and constant political invective reached a dangerous level with assassination attempts on the President and the murder a prominent political leader. And second, files on the assassination were made public. From this chaos, a way to complete my Kennedy project emerged. With John F. Kennedy: Light the World, I was able to bring all the elements together with a script that I believe is good theater and that delivers a powerful and much needed message to counter all the poison and invective in today's politics.
First, the form is ceremonial -- it's not a traditional narrative. This theatrical ceremony presents a set of actions, statements, etc. for performance on specific days (e.g. President's Day, Memorial Day, July 4th, Veteran's Day, the anniversary of JFK's assassination) for a serious purpose (to honor the memory of our 35th President).
The thesis of the play is that the animators and agents of a powerful hidden Force (I theatrically and metaphorically call it the Leviathan in the book, but all the data now is clear that it was a conspiracy) assassinated President Kennedy in order to maintain their covert control over the United States. Kennedy was taking steps to dismantle and render this Force powerless. Though its personnel have changed over time, the Leviathan continues to wreak havoc with America's politics, it's culture, and it's institutions. The play presents quotations from Kennedy's speeches, accounts of his deeds, and commentary about how his assassination changed individual Americans, our history, our culture, and our politics. John F. Kennedy: Light the World concludes by referring to Kennedy’s many comments about unity and the need to rise above partisanship -- a most timely, relevant message for today’s politicians and supporters.
The Keepsake Book Edition is a way to share this with general readers by publishing it on Amazon. It's available in hardback and paperback versions, as well as a smaller, cheaper Actor's Script version (not made for the general reader) with only a few pictures necessary for cues.
Producers and directors, I sincerely hope you will schedule a performance of John F. Kennedy: Light the World in the coming months of this our nation's 250th anniversary year.
